The World Will End In A Week

December 25, 2011

Ah, this is an entirely true story where the timing was, unfortunately, perfect due to a certain date. When I was in college AIM was all the rage and everyone was always signed on with their buddy lists and away messages. At the time my friends and I were always posting clever and funny away messages, similar to the status messages found on facebook today.

So I thought of a prank a high school teacher pulled on us a few years back. One day he came into the classroom at the beginning of the period, walked to the board without saying anything, looked ominously at us and wrote on the board “THE WORLD WILL END IN TWO DAYS.” He then proceeded to teach class, refusing to answer any questions regarding the cryptic message. The next day he entered the room silently, walked to the board and wrote “THE WORLD WILL END TOMORROW.” No explanation. The following day: “THE WORLD WILL END TODAY.” At this point we were slightly unnerved and apprehensive as to what he could be referring to yet our teacher continued to teach as if that day were no different. Nothing happened. We came in to class the next day, clearly with the world still in existence and thought for sure our teacher was a crackpot. He walked in, confident as ever and strolled to the board. He wrote “THE WORLD ENDED YESTERDAY.” At that point we all groaned in disbelief, he went on to explain how it was a humorous exercise in getting our attention and it worked.

Fast forward a few years to me at my computer, thinking this would be a terrific joke for my away message. So I posted “THE WORLD WILL END IN A WEEK.” Friends IM’d me, concerned; I assured them all was ok and that everything would be revealed in due time. I continued my ritual for a week, building anticipation among my closer friends, likely annoying the other 200 people who could see my away message.

Then the day came when I woke up, posted “THE WORLD WILL END TODAY,” and I left for my morning class. I took my seat in the auditorium when the professor announced, “folks, we’re going to be canceling classes for the remainder of the day due to the attacks on the pentagon and the world trade center…” This was the first I heard of it and I had no clue what was going on, the tragedy was simply not apparent to me yet. I returned home and saw the news and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then I turned to my computer.

Nearly 100 messages. Some were shocked but amused, others were downright threatening. A lot of “DUDE WTF”s in there too. Some asked if I knew something or knew the attackers. All in all, a bad day and some explaining to do.

There's a possibility all of these stories are the result of drugs, mental illness, physical illness, stress, sleep paralysis, dreams, or natural phenomena misidentified. That all of these stories are the result of the story teller lying or exaggerating.
But out of all the hundreds of stories here there is also the very real possibility that perhaps one is the absolute truth, that one has no other possible explanation other than the supernatural.
The question is, which story is it and what would that suggest about the universe.